• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • PSYCH. OF SAFETY & RISK
    • What is Psychological Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Robert Long
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no HIERARCHY of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
    • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Safety Acronyms
    • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
    • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
    • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
    • Safety Slogans List
    • Road Safety Slogans 2022
    • How to write your own safety slogans
    • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
    • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
    • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
    • Safety Slogans for Work
  • Safety Culture
    • Safety Culture Silences
  • Psychological Safety
You are here: Home / Due Diligence / A Typical Safety eBulletin

A Typical Safety eBulletin

March 31, 2021 by Dr Rob Long 3 Comments

A Typical Safety eBulletin

imageIt is always amusing to receive safety newsletters and publications from associations and note the language/discourse used. The latest HSE mail out is typical. The leading story is about a free webinar to manage risk.

When one learns to think critically one knows how to ask questions about agenda, politics, power and discourse (the power in language). In Discourse Analysis  it is not just important to study what is said but also what is not said and how it is said. You won’t find anything globally in the safety industry on Critical Theory of Discourse Analysis. So, nothing to see here.

The webinar is about ‘how to understand and control risks’ not about how to understand persons and how they tackle risk. This subtle emphasis is critical in understanding how this industry speaks about its challenges. The focus is on risk as an object not persons and risk as a human state.

In orthodox/traditional safety this is where the emphasis lies, on systems to manage risk not on people and how they tackle risk. In this webinar this is justified by the phrase ‘to meet legal requirements in protecting workers’. Of course, this shouldn’t be the justification for tackling risk not is it true. Most risk management systems are not a legal defence in court often because they are poorly enacted or are understood as an end in themselves. One only has to read Papersafe by Greg Smith  to understand that most often Safety Management Systems are used against you in court.

When Greg and I offer our Due Diligence workshop (https://cllr.com.au/product/due-diligence-workshop-unit-13/) most participants are astounded to learn that most of what they do is NOT a legal requirement and neither does what they do absolve legal liability.

Many beliefs in risk and safety and the systems created to manage risk are based much more on safety mythology than reality.

Many safety initiatives paraded in the safety industry are more about the propaganda and marketing of myths than about the realities of legal liability and what to do about it.

How interesting that when something goes wrong in an organization that a legal professional is called in, safety people are not legal professionals indeed, they are not professional at all. How can Safety be professional when it doesn’t hold to the practice of ‘helping’, has no theory of personhood and therefore no ethical base? How can safety be professional when it denies fallibility and idolizes the ideology of zero? The only outcome of Zero is brutalism. When you frame your activity by a number, what ever follows will be unethical.

So, this webinar is not about persons but about object control and the control of objects. There is no mention of persons or decision making in the webinar but be assured the ‘experts’ will give you a system to control risk?

And if you like, you can follow up with the downloading of an app about understanding the law and responsibilities. What a neat little package, I can just imagine what the app does and certainly wouldn’t waste a cent on it. Another checklist after just admitting in the previous marketing blurb that safety has become a ‘tick a box’ exercise.

Then the next offer in the bulletin is a ‘Near Miss Book’ and an ‘Accident Book’, more focus on objects and policing regulations.

How fascinating this industry that never talks about politics and power, about ethics or personhood, the focus is always on controlling objects and policing regulations and here we have yet one more eBulletin confirming it.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • Understanding Psychological Terminology - August 7, 2022
  • Poetics of the Self - August 7, 2022
  • Culture Silences in Safety – What Culture Isn’t - August 7, 2022
  • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it! - August 6, 2022
  • When Only More Guilt Will Do - August 6, 2022
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Due Diligence, Robert Long, Safety News Tagged With: discourse analysis, safety mythology

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bernard Corden says

    April 1, 2021 at 11:07 AM

    George Orwell once proclaimed that advertising is like rattling a stick inside a swill bucket.

    The stick and bucket are the engineering controls and the swill is behavioural safety which is often furtively disguised as human factors,

    Reply
  2. Rob Long says

    April 1, 2021 at 7:00 AM

    Hi Simon, I think the evolution of safety out of engineering and science is a large part of this focus on objects and a closed approach to the validity of other disciplines. Until Safety takes on a Transdisciplinary approach it is likely nothing will change. Most of the associations started out naming engineering as their focus and most incident investigations are engineering exercises. Probably why the safety industry can’t cope with the challenges of mental health and has no vision of what to do next other than marketing.

    Reply
  3. simon cassin says

    March 31, 2021 at 11:08 PM

    Great points well raised. Do you think part of the reason for this lack of a human focus is due to objectification and commodification of the workforce?

    Recognising the intrinsic value of personhood and seeing humans as people first may provide a different perspective on how we consider the management of risk.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,463 other subscribers

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Wynand on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on Culture Silences in Safety – What Culture Isn’t
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Brent Charlton on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Richard Brookes on How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Rob Long on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Ooker on The Rhizome as a Learning Model for Risk
  • Rob Long on Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language
  • Manjit Handa on Safety Doesn’t Need Military Language
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Ricardo Montero on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Admin on Culture Silences in Safety – Ritual
  • Anonymous on Culture Silences in Safety – Ritual
  • Rob Long on Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • Admin on Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • Rob Long on Doing Away With Health and Safety–Language and People
  • Rob Long on Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2022
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2022
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format
  • What Is Safety?
  • IDEAS FOR SAFETY TOOL BOX TALKS, HARD HAT CHATS and SAFETY MOMENTS

Recent Posts

  • Understanding Psychological Terminology
  • Poetics of the Self
  • Culture Silences in Safety – What Culture Isn’t
  • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • When Only More Guilt Will Do
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • Keep Counting Every Time You Don’t Achieve Your Goal, That’s Professional
  • Safety and Non-Neuroscience
  • Paperwork and Usability in Tackling Risk
  • Safety as a Masculinist Activity
  • You Don’t Want a Compliance Culture
  • The Soul of Mental Health
  • Identity and Safety
  • Psychosocial Controls and Measures for Who?
  • Linguistics and Safety
  • Not a Profession’s Bootlace
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Power and Politics
  • History and Safety
  • What is Psychosocial Safety
  • A Guide to Psychosocial Safety Skills
  • Doing Away With Health and Safety–Language and People
  • The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious
  • Tape Down Those Leads
  • More Safety Code to Disguise Behaviourism
  • Why Safety is Attracted to Behaviourism
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Understanding Safety as an Archetype
  • The Purpose of Safety
  • Learning Styles Matter
  • Due Diligence and Holistic Ergonomics Workshops
  • Having FUN in Safety FUNdamentalism
  • 80% of Safety Practitioners Are Idiots
  • Risk Homeostasis Theory–Why Safety Initiatives Go Wrong
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Semiotics
  • Flooding is Dangerous, and I don’t Mean the Water….
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Aesthetics
  • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
  • Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk
  • Due Diligence Videos – 10000 downloads
  • Release the Safety Monster and Wreck a Good TV Show
  • Paper Safe
  • Safety Starts with Us
  • Investigations and Heuristics
  • Barry’s Latest Safety Innovation Discovery
  • The Human Race…
  • The ASSP Getting Complacency Completely Wrong
  • What in the (Risk & Safety) World is Imagination?
  • Understanding Safety Myths
  • Cultural Silences in Safety – Empathy
  • Culture Silences in Safety – Trajectories

FEATURED POSTS

Biases and Perceptions in Safety

The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started

Human Factors is Never About Humans

Safety and Risk Culture Cloud

Affirming Chance

Safety People Don’t ‘Save Lives’

Human Dymensions Newsletter–October 2014

Concept Mapping Risk iCue

The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World

A Philosophy of Safety

The Challenge of Social Sensemaking in Risk

Second Group Completes Graduate Certificate in Psychology of Risk

Risk Psychometrics, Spin and Snake Oil

SPoR Quarterly Newsletter September 2021

Risk and Safety as a Wicked Problem

The Futility of the Centralised Safety Management System?

What Safety and Risk Could Learn From Patch Adams

The Different Levels of Wrongness!

I am a Spreadsheet King

Safety Justifies Anything and Everything

Risk and Safety Rituals

Why Safety is Inescapably Theological

A Masters Degree in ‘Tick and Flick’

Even Safety Is Fallible

Safety as Faith Healing

The Religion of Safety

A Parallel Universe in Safety

TRIFR Safety Zombies

Zero ‘Arm

What or Who Is Safety?

Lemmings for Lemmings in Leadership and Risk

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

Framing Folly and Fantasy in Safety

Doing Something Bad Well

Risk Culture and Cultural Risk

ACTOR + ACTION + TIME = EVENT

The Disembodied Human and Persons in Safety

Clarity Enabled

Safety Giveaways–Free Stuff!

How does collective mindfulness apply to workers compensation?

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,463 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

What is Psychological Safety at Work?